Presidential campaigns are so carefully stage-managed that few things are as entertaining as the mistakes politicians make on the trail.
Throughout the 2008 race, check out TIME.com's ongoing chronicle of each
candidate's gaffes, and then vote on just how big a screwup each one is

McCain's "Hussein" Hiccup

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John McCain
Feb. 26, 2008

"At one point, the media will quit taking sides in this thing and start covering Barack Hussein Obama."

Conservative talk show host Bill Cunningham, using Obama's middle name before McCain took the stage at a Cincinnati rally. McCain later repudiated the comments, widely viewed as an attempt to paint Obama as somehow un-American, and said it won't happen again. Following that, Cunningham rebuked McCain on his radio show and said he would instead back Clinton.